MAX PECHSTEIN – Expression of Harmony
Expressionism – wild, unbridled, impulsive, undisciplined, rebellious? Traditionalists angrily viewed the newcomers at the turn of the century as a destructive movement. The painters of Die Brücke and the Blaue Reiter certainly disrupted the long established order with their spontaneous and joyous use of colour and freedom of line.
The Kunsthal Rotterdam has mounted a very substantial exhibition of the work of expressionist Max Pechstein, whose name is often confused with Max Beckmann. Both were German artists, though Pechstein’s work is a little softer, some may say, not quite as harsh as Beckman’s. Both men bore the deep scars inflicted by WW1 and its horrors.
Pechstein shares much with the art of Die Brücke and the Blaue Reiter – the bright colours, the bold strokes of paint and pen. In his drawing there was a freedom, attacking the paper with his chosen tool with energy and a palpable lack of fear of not succeeding, always following the philosophy of Die Brücke group – immediate and unfiltered.
The portraits of friends and family are wonderful, but his drawings, especially those of simple labourers, are by far the stronger work – one could easily find echoes of these in the work of Baselitz et al. Pechstein’s woodcuts, though exquisite, are rather more controlled. It is understandable that his paintings, with their vivid colours so typical of the Blaue Reiter style where colour was often the star, might have had a large audience. He was very productive and had many collectors once he migrated in 1907 to Berlin, at the time the absolute center of all creativity. Among his influences were Van Gogh, Matisse and the Fauves painters. In the painting of 1911 Under the Trees of nudes leaping and dancing, there are distinct echoes of Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon and by comparison, Matisse’s nudes dancing seem decidedly tame.
Pechstein sought and found inspiration not only in Berlin, Paris and Italy. Throughout his life he was fascinated by the gnarled, crusty working men and women in the fishing ports of the Baltic and later in Italy.
Inspired by Gauguin’s escape from Europe’s civilization more than a decade before, Pechstein travelled to the remote island of Palau where his work idolized the carefree life of the largely naked population, a true contrast to the highly ‘respectable’ and often repressed German society.
With the arrival of the Nazis, he was dismissed from his university professorship and was expelled from the Academy of Arts. A number of his paintings were included in Hitler’s exhibition of Degenerate Art at the Munich Kunsthaus. He went into seclusion in the deepest countryside in Pomerania. He was reinstated in 1945. Many of his collectors were Jewish whose collections were stolen by the Nazis and the fight for the restitution of the works by his descendants has been largely successful and is continuing to this day.
This is a beautiful exhibition of invigorating work. Not to be missed. Astrid Burchardt, 1st May 2025
MAX PECHSTEIN, Expression of Harmony continues at the Kunsthal Rotterdam until 15th June
